PJ 3

That frame condition is amazing. I have a small Yota rav that I cruize with in the salt and it's rotted to the core........Make a man like you shiver in his boots ! We use torches, grinders and welders up here to fix our frames........not wire brushes !

wheelieking71

yea, i am actually from Erie county in Pennsylvania. smack in the rust-belt. i know all about it bud! rust sucks

wheelieking71

okay, so, sunday i left off pretty much right here:



cuts laid out on both sides. measured 10 times, marked perfectly, laying under the frame with the death-wheel on my chest. ready to cut! when the phone rings......"do you still have the 82' dodge truck for sale?" see, i had the truck on ebay a while back. got LOTS of interest. then actually had it sold. guy backed out. thats when i said eff' it, and decided to build this project. then i got said phone call!! LOL, i was literally 30 seconds from cutting the frame, and sold the 82"!! soo....sad to say, this project is dead. or at least the engine is in hibernation for another day. and this time the sale is legit. thats why i havnt posted in this thread since sunday. wanted to make sure it wasnt a false alarm again. but, i delivered the truck today, and collected the monies! sad to see the project go, but i more than tripled my money on the 82'!!! cant turn that down no matter what! the truck is headed back to the rust belt in Mass. and will be appreciated for what it is. that is a good thing. and i met a fellow hard-core MOPAR freak in the process. the guy who handeled the deal has some serious mopar iron in his man-cave. (im talking one garage worth about 1.5million dollars!) and lives about 15 minutes from me. COOL. but, back to my saga, since the 82' was my "driver" i am now driving the wifes truck. and, that aint gonna fly. so "my current diesel project" has turned to my main gig which is big-whitey! unfortunately he is in a state of disarray with no tranny. and partially disassembled for paint:



okay, i am back to driving my project. that sucks. my project isnt drivable. that really sucks. i have the $$$$ to finish my project without tapping into credit or momma's $$$$. that is sweet! time to bust *** and get a tranny in the beast. there is also NO interior. and i mean gutted. the dash frame is still there, but thats it, and only because i hadnt pulled the windshield yet. i need to be driving this beast by thursday! i got work to do!

DJ Turbo.

Congrats on the sale! and luck to ya on gettin whitey finished on time!

90ctd

**** Bill!!

I was excited to see rollin' coal but big whitey is one of my all time favorite trucks but it'll be awesome to see him getting some love.

Are you still going to chop the frame and fix/ replace all the worn suspension components while you look for another body donor?

CE_TX

Man I'm glad you are back on big whitey, can't wait to see how she comes out!!!

wheelieking71

thought i would bring this up to speed. even though the original theme of the thread is dead, my garage rarely sleeps! im wrapping up big-whiteys swap to the automatic. way more work than meets the eye! LOL. i am definitely glad i had a complete running donor truck for all the bits and pieces. and, that they were all in good shape, and i did pretty good job of keeping track of it all. it was all rediculously filthy though. i have about 15hrs into cleaning parts now! so, here is my temporary ghetto-fab crossmember that will get me back and forth to work till i finish the "good" frame:



the 4x4 crossmember from big-whitey would not hold the 2x4 tranny. the 2x4 crossmember from little-whitey did not fit big-whiteys frame. sooo, i grabbed the front upper crosmember i removed from little-whiteys frame. flipped it over, and set it on top of the bottom frame rail under big-whitey. then stacket the scrap steel in there till i had the tranny mount at the proper height. then welded a piece of 2.5" x 3/8' flat stock in the channel for strength (this crossmember is actually quite flimsy) and here is the crossmember doing work:

DJ Turbo.

nice temporary fab up man!

wheelieking71

thanks, i wanted to fire up big-whitey yesterday. he hasnt run in 3 months. so i am excited to lite the fire. but i got a little side tracked.



got to love craigslist! ive been wanting 3.54s ever since i bought big-whitey. i have thought the 4.10s were a little deep from day one. probably wouldnt have been as bad with the automatic as it was with the manual. but, sometimes a deal pops up that you just cant pass on. here is that deal. i was hoping the rear would have a trac-lock. unfortunately its open diff. bummer, but they are a matched set of 3.54s. the brakes are all junk. and the kingpins need some attention i am sure. but the U-joints are tight. that is a good sign. they came from a truck that was parted out back east, so they are rustier than i am used to. but they will clean up well. only minor pitting. the only "real" potential problem i see is the rust between the rear hub, and drums. pretty bad there. hope the hubs are okay. if not i know a machinist! LOL. all nestled away in thier new (temporary) home:



okay, back to big-whitey! i want fire in the hole!

wheelieking71

i dont know what the hell i was worried about. he started instantly like i had just shut him down 5 minutes ago LOL. i LOVE these engines!

but, it seems nothing i ever do can go off wthout a hitch. effin' Murphy! so, i am really growing to dislike the heat-exchanger! first issue, i installed it on the engine late last night. had been at it all day was tired and just not really thinking. this morning i went to install the coolant lines that run to it, and ill be damned if one of them doesnt have to go behind it! absolutely no way to install the line without removing the exchanger. well, its not exactly the easiest job to get it out of there. not rediculous, but not fun either. so pulled it out, installed the line, reinstalled the exchanger, bla-bla-bla. got everything all buttoned back up, and every thing seemed fine. untill! coolant started dripping on the ground. WTH?! so i started rooting around like a monkey under there with a mirror. and i will be damned if that coolant line that i had to remove the exchanger to install doesnt have a split in the steel!! eff' me! its about 1/4" long, and the seam just split. not corroded, not bent or tweaked. just split. CRAP! youve got to be kidding me. but, since i have been at this swap for 14hrs every day since cupcake left, i was bound and determined to fire the beast up. i cut a piece of heater-hose, split it lengthwize, and slipped it over the split. then wrapped a hose-clamp aroud it and tightened it up. just like a freakin' band-aid! LOL. it stopped the leak. not permanent, but functional for right now. so, i fired him up, and let him idle for probly 30 minutes. wanted the coolant and tranny both up to temp to check levels, and for leaks. so far, so good. shifter is adjusted well. everything seems to be working fine. ive got some wiring to do. and i need to figure out if i can pull a signal from the 93' 3-wire VSS to run the speedo. the 91 has a 2-wire VSS. i just need to get the schematics side bye side for the 91' and 93'. so i can check out the engine harness connectors, and see if i can plug a 93' eng./tranny harness into my 91' main harness. HMMMM, time for research.......

wheelieking71

okay, quick, easy (hopefully easy for somebody!) question. is it possible for me to get my speedometer working with the original 3-wire VSS in the 93' transmission? remember my truck is a 91.5' that was originally equipped with a Getrag/205. that had the 2-wire VSS. now it has a 93' A-518 with a 3-wire VSS. is there a quick and dirty (ie: temporary) way for me to rig the 3-wire VSS to operate my speedo? i have a 90', and 91' FSM, that both go into detail about the 2-wire VSS, but unfortunately i do not have a 93' FSM, and i know nothing about the 3-wire VSS. any help would be greatly appreciated!! (before i get a ticket! LOL) i do have the truck up and running, and i am headed for the emmision station in 5 minutes. should have the registration renewed within a couple hours. just need to do some temp. wiring after that, and big-whitey will be my driver again. but i really need my speedo!

wheelieking71

c'mon, somebody is "up to speed" on the different VSS's. (ha-ha, pun intended)

bye the way, i know there are a couple guys local to me on here. i have a grill from the parts rig i am gonna toss. its not nice. cracked in a couple spots, with peeling, and flaking chrome. but it is in one piece for the most part, and may be better than one somebody is driving around with?? hell, i rocked it for a few months because it was better than the broken grille that came on my rig when i bought it. free to anybody local. no, i wont ship it. it cost too much, and i dont have box, or time, or desire. its going in the dumpster at work tomorrow. time to clean up the yard.

wheelieking71

soo, big-whitey was due for emissions since his tags ran out in feb. because i hate the emissions game, and i didnt want to go more than once, i went ahead and "detuned" the pump. backed the fuel screw out 2 turns. which meant i had to raise the slow-idle. then i lowered the fast idle so i wasnt right on the "366" governor spring during the snap test. when i got there they went over the pump with a fine toothed comb! they had 3 different guys looking at it with flashlights!! crawling up on the fender to look at the screws and everything. i was like "WTH guys?". one guy who seemed to really know what was up said "why is your fast idle screw cranked in so far?". so i told him exactly what i did, and why. i thought he was gonna give me a hard time, but he didnt. they ran it, and he passed! which brings me to a perplexing finding. of course, i immediately went home and "re-tuned" the pump. now, last time i messed with the fuel screw, i wasnt able to go in any farther because i could not lower the slow idle low enough. well, yesterday, i went ahead and bottomed the screw against the collar, and backed the low idle all the way out so that the linkage was not even contacting the screw. and, he would not even start! so i bumped the low idle screw in to the linkage untill he would start. the only thing that has changed is the flywheel, yet i now have full control of the low idle even with the fuel screw bottomed against the collar, where before i did not! WEIRD!

soo, anyways. after driving the 20 or so miles to the emissions station, then the MVD to renew the registration, with 2 big gaping holes in the floor. i realized just how "LOUD" the Cummins really is! LOL, and how hot the transmission case really gets. so it was time to remove the last remnant of the fact that big-whitey used to be a manual tranny truck. first thing i did was blanket the dash:



then cut a piece of sheetmetal, and mark where i was gonna cut the twisted part of the floor out:



then mock it up for tacking:



and, finally, no more shifter hole:



i also made a temporary cover that screws over the T-case shifter hole to block the heat/noise untill i fill the hole with the shifter and boot. then went for a ride cause i had done some more tuning. WAAAY better! speaking of said tuning: is it possible to run the kickdown cable TOO tight? when i completed the swap i set it up per the instructions in the "sticky" here. i also tweaked the screw while i had the tranny apart (per: sticky). yet it was shifting quite early. so i bumped the cable in untill the back of the slot is just shy of touching the pin at idle. and i mean, just shy, maybe .025" clearance. it now has much better shift points, and will actually down shift into passing gear. where as before when set, per: sticky, it would not shift into passing gear at all. and was in 3rd gear by about 20mph, not to mention shifting into 2nd almost immediately after breakaway. oh, bye-the-way, big-whitey hauls **** as an automatic tranny truck!!!

wheelieking71

okay, here is where my uphoria with old Dodge trucks fades:

watch video


that is absolutely rediculous. and believe me, all our trucks are just like that. obviously that is right where you grab either the latch to open the door, or the handle to close the door. and all that flex translates into an extremely CHEAP and flimsy feeling truck. the metal cracks, and the issue only gets worse. and eventually it also destroys the door panel. i find the doors on our trucks to be absolutely pathetic. there arent many bad things i can say about our trucks. but, the doors suck at best! i have had issues with this for many years. well im finally gonna do something about it! right now, both of big-whiteys doors are completely gutted. the only thing still installed are the latches, and inside/outside handles. i spent a couple hours last night drinking corona, and staring at the door trying to figure just how i could "improve" the flimsy POS. stay tuned to see me either improve, or hack to bits, my doors LOL!

wheelieking71

it took some thinking, but i think i got it figured out. ready to operate:



the plan: run a piece of 5/8" .062wall square tube front to back. it took some studying, and comparing the door, door panel, window regulator to come up with a plan that was simple. wouldnt interfere with anything. and most importantly, would work! the hardest part was getting the courage to cut the void in the door for the tube to go through. here the door is prepped, and you can see the void i mentioned:



it took a little thinking, measuring, guessing, and creative cutting to figure out how the square tube would fit, but here is is clamped in place:



as you can see, i trimmed the thickness of the tube down on the ends so as to "sink" the tube into the door. it just clears the window regulator, and its motor. just clears! and here we go, all welded in!



sooo, did it work? HELL YEA!! it worked!!

watch video


time to go do the passenger side! WOO-HOO, i bet this will silently be one of the best mods i have made to this truck. can you tell how much i HATE these doors? LOL